KKH ? latest update/trip

[Wanderlust]

Thanks for the kind words brother!

[arsalan.ahmed.31]

AOA

great man..seems like you had an awesome time.really impressed

well i and my two friends are planning a trip to Khunjerab..As its hard to find time during normal days so we are planning to go there on this coming eid on my friend's Suzuki Khyber.
So i have a few questions??
1.What is the weather and road condition..can we go and come back in 4-5 days from lhr.??
2.Which route will suit us the best??Directly KKH or should we go from the Jalkhad Chillas rd via naran??
3.How is the law and order condition??

Can anyone plz guide me asap as we dont have much time to plan..
thanks

[Wanderlust]

AOA
great man..seems like you had an awesome time.really impressed

well i and my two friends are planning a trip to Khunjerab..As its hard to find time during normal days so we are planning to go there on this coming eid on my friend's Suzuki Khyber.
So i have a few questions??
1.What is the weather and road condition..can we go and come back in 4-5 days from lhr.??
2.Which route will suit us the best??Directly KKH or should we go from the Jalkhad Chillas rd via naran??
3.How is the law and order condition??

Can anyone plz guide me asap as we dont have much time to plan..
thanks

Well, 4 to 5 days from lahore is like torture to the group and Khyber car. Its just like a race from Lahore and back to Lahore.

Khyber has very low ground clearance and can't sustain KKH. A couple of months back, I sold my suzuki khyber that I rebuilt with all frills, partcularly for road trips. It was mechanically fit as well. This year I had a trip to derawar fort in cholistan. Although, I came back without any problem on the road but I have to spend 15k for a number of issues that included leaked geabox, axel issues etc. Old is after all old, it couldnot sustain some bad road patches towards derawar fort.

And if you still insist, then be ready to pay one way car transport charges of Rs. 9,000 on atabad lake. Pay the money to buy big risk of car slipping into the lake... You will see in this thread how vehicles are transported on the boat.

Rest decision is yours.

[Wanderlust]

Next morning I left the hotel after enjoying both commode and flush of my hotel's bathroom. Thanks to the hotel owner for such a wonderful facility.

It was 6:30am when I pumped first 10 litre's can of hi octane in my trip companion my corolla. On KKH, there are few and apart apparently nice petrol pumps. To cancel out the effect of bad petrol, I have carried four 10 liter containers each of Hi octane, that I poured in the car at different intervals.

I have checked repaired tyre and the air pressure indicated that puncture was fixed well yesterday though rim was banged badly during the process.

[Wanderlust]

After leaving Chilas, I turned towards right for Babusar track and then realized that Babusar was sliced away from my original itinerary. Returned back and crossed this bridge over Babusar nala and continued my jouney on KKH for Nagar and Hunza

[Wanderlust]

On KKH, I observed different types of mountains from hard to soft, from rocks to loose soil. Interesting thing is that despite different geology of mountains all along, one attitude of mountains is common, they are consistently spitting land slides. Salute to the builders of KKH.

[Wanderlust]

My companions on the road that were always ready to let me overtake. You can also see the situation of road.

It started getting worst as I was approaching Raikot bridge.

[Wanderlust]

At last I reached Fairy Meadows point on KKH.

[Wanderlust]

As I crossed Raikot bridge, I started feeling uncomfortable as the road was in terrible state. Asphalt and dust stone layers had washed away for ages. It was the worst driving experience, may be beacuse my mind was relating to the hiking experience between Raikot and Tattu in late 1998.

It was a trip for Gilgit and Fairy Meadows with my travel buddy. After a long journey by bus of 18 hours, finally we reached Raikot Bridge. After bus had left, we heard bad news that a part of track has been wiped off by land sliding and we have to go on foot. We decided to hike in direct sunlight on our heads and temperature soaring to 50 degrees Celsius. It was a decision to torture ourselves because of a long journey by bus, no sleep, no breakfast, terribly hot surroundings, just 500ml of bottled water each and above all no contingency plan.

On the way, luckily we got hold of a person who offered us porter services. He was like an angel at that time but during the next two days he proved himself a devil trying to fleece us from all our finances. It was indeed painful; we were students with limited budget.

At last we reached fairy meadows. This is the picture from 1998 that I had taken with my first automatic camera Yoshika Twintek......stolen later

[Wanderlust]

road torture continued in the land of nanga parbat

[typeN]

excellent!

[Wanderlust]

excellent!

Thanks

[Wanderlust]

After an hour or so of torturing, I was on newly paved portion of KKH and finally stopped at Thalechi. There used to be just a sign board in the middle of no where saying "Look to your left Killer Mountain Nanga Parbat 8,126m". This sign board is there but now dwarfed in front of some shops that mushroomed in Thalechi. Too bad.

I stopped here at a tea shop and enjoyed views of Nanga Parbat while sipping the tea.

This is zoomed image. Don't consider that Nanga Parbat is that close from Thalechi.

[muhammadali1066]

More...... waiting.

[Wanderlust]

Continued my journey towards Nagar & Hunza.

These are the remains of KKH that was badly eroded by 2010 flood. You can also see eroded hills, and Indus now flowing gently.

[Wanderlust]

This is what remained after the erosion of this section of KKH

[060276]

nice pictures with narration.. keep sharing ...Why u were alone on this trip specially on KKH ? i guess its very strange ?

[Wanderlust]

A land slide that blocked the road. Luckily, there was an excavator already clearing the blockage and red flag was wrapped after about 15 minutes.

[Wanderlust]

nice pictures with narration.. keep sharing ...Why u were alone on this trip specially on KKH ? i guess its very strange ?

Glad you are enjoying my thread. I was alone because I am too busy at work during season in the north. But the upside is, I could focus closely on the KKH.

[Raheeln]

great going.......nice info as well...